Takumi Iruma is the unfortunate victim of a summoning mistake by a goddess from another world. Goddess Norn intended to summon a group of heroes, but Takumi is merely an ordinary salaryman. After apologizing for her mistake, Norn addresses something important: she can’t return Takumi to Earth anymore. He takes this news better than most people would, all things considered, and asks her what’s next. To make up for her mistake, he’ll get the chance to start over in a new world, with her special blessing. In this new world, we see Takumi learn new skills and make new friends quickly. But will he choose a simple life, or will the call to adventure deny him that option?

I think the production quality is up to standard in terms of animation, voice acting, and soundtrack. The art style is a bit generic though, and the video game menus look bland. But the things I’d criticize the most about this first episode are the story and the characters. The first five minutes are nothing more than Takumi speaking with Norn amid the clouds of a heavenly realm. During this time, we learn basically nothing about Takumi, and it doesn’t help that he has no physical body during the conversation. Norn is not interesting enough to carry the scene either, and this sets the stage for a mediocre first episode. The rest is moderately entertaining, as we see Takumi gain new skills. Still, it feels kind of meaningless if there are no interesting characters for him to interact with. Some of the foreshadowing in the first episode suggests that the story might take a different direction soon, so if you’re not too bothered by the first episode, it might be worth sticking around for an episode or two more. However, because of the unoriginal premise and uninteresting characters, I won’t be watching any more of this anime.

Possibly the Greatest Alchemist of All Time is streaming on Crunchyroll.